how to aply color to mesh

See more:

DirectX

i am creating ball trail using the following function

D3DXCreateCylinder(d3ddev, 0.0f, fRadius, fLength, 10, 20, &meshCylinder, NULL);

i have setup proper pipeline to render this trail follow the current position of ball

but the render trail is of black color, i want to change that color to white and at the end of trail i want to make trial some what transparent